1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of diagnosing a vehicle engine cooling system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicle engine cooling systems are known in which a stream of fluid (normally water) is fed to the inlet of a radiator connected to one or more cooling fans, which direct a stream of air through the radiator to produce an outward heat exchange, so that the water at the outlet of the radiator is cooler than at the inlet. As is known, due to aging and wear of the radiator and/or members producing forced flow of the water, the efficiency of the engine cooling system decreases considerably, and therefore also the difference between the temperature of the water at the inlet and outlet.
A need therefore exists for a method of fully automatically determining such a situation, and of also determining gradual decline of the engine cooling system to predict pending malfunction of the system well in advance.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method of diagnosing a cooling system of a vehicle engine, characterized by comprising the steps of: acquiring operating data relative to operation of the cooling system between turn-on of the engine and subsequent turn-off of the engine; processing the acquired operating data and accumulating the data to create at least one database; and examining the location of the data within said database to determine malfunction and/or potential malfunction situations of said cooling system.